Siracusa

This post will probably be a lot of random thoughts of the last farm (Paolo and Pia) and this wonderful place where I am now in Siracusa.  There is the OLD Siracusa on an island connected to the NEW Siracusa by a bridge.  The OLD Siracusa is called ORTIGIA.  Because I love all that really old stuff, I am loving being here on the sea.  I have walked every street here on the island a few times with the help of my trusty map with all the street names.  But it's being right on the sea that I love best.
The food here on the island is mostly seafood.  And most of that is shell fish; octopus, squid too.  But mussels and clams and shrimp is abundant.  The 2 kinds of fish I see mostly are swordfish and sea bass.
There is a market every day on the street where all the food stores are.  So they set up on the street just outside their store every day.  And the whole fish there are amazing.  Some names I cannot translate.
The cheese venders are more than generous in giving out samples.  Fresh ricotta and baked ricotta are quite popular.  Samples of fresh mozzarella made every day are given out freely.  So one day Tunde and I went there and asked if they would make us each a sandwich with the fresh ricotta and olive mix and tomato pesto and thick balsamic.  It was 2 Euro and quite delicious.

                                                     Zafferana and Paolo and Pia

Zafferana Etnea was a lovely town about  a 5 mile walk from the tiny village where I lived in Pisano which is a part of Zafferana.  Downtown Zafferana is called Zafferana Etnea.  No matter where you turned, Mt. Etna was right there steaming away and gorgeous.  So I could look up to my left and see Etna and look to my right at the sea.  I really love Sicily!
The main street in Pisano had 3 stores.  First a very small grocery right next door to us, then a Tobacchi which sold you know cigarettes, lottery tickets, coffee, alcohol and pastries and cookies.  That was the bar.  And 3rd there was a Pasticceria that sold pastries, mostly cookies, wonderful bread and rolls baked every day right there and then there was the PIZZA!  Really good pizza.  A 12" margarita pizza was $2.50.  We'd always make a joke that tonight we'd visit all 3 stores in Pisano!  
My room at the house was right on the main street.  My window was seperated from the street by a narrow sidewalk.  Now these streets that wind through all the villages here are quite narrow.  And yet, just like all of Italy that I've seen so far, the drivers are CRAZY!  They drive unbelievably fast.  So fast the shutters on my window would rattle quite loudly.  I still don't know how I have not experienced an accident this whole time.
The house that I live in was built in the early 1900's and architecturally is absolutely beautiful inside.  It's got the original wall paper and many of the original furniture.  Paolo and Pia have done nothing to change anything here.  This house was given to Pia about 10 years ago by her parents.  I didn't feel comfortable enough to ask Pia any questions about the house.  She was not friendly to us at all.  It has 6 bedrooms downstairs and4 bathrooms.  Upstairs I think has the 2 bedrooms and a bath that the family uses.  I never went up there.  Like I said they were not friendly to us and did not ask us anything culturally about our lives.  WWOOFing is supposed to be culturally exchanging.  They were not.

Tunde (WWOOFer from Transylvania (Hungary)) and I were counting the days when we would be leaving Paolo's house.  We couldn't wait.  The tension between Pia and Paolo and those 2 kids was almost unbearable at times.  We just wanted to get out of the house as much as possible so opted to go out back within the 10+ acres he had and clean away the bramble bushes.  It was easy work and pleasant being outside in the sun and cool breezes and off in the distance was the sea.  None of this work was required of us.  We took it upon ourselves to do this.  Being in the house with the screaming, biting, hitting Giuseppe was never easy.
But seeing Paolo always on the computer, in a room you could barely walk in to being more cluttered than imaginable, was disturbing.  What was he doing?  It was a question Tunde and I always asked each other.  Then there was the transport slips that were filled out in a way to make it look like Paolo was selling and transporting many, many more avocados than we had ever picked.  And then the ominous question "How is he making any money"?  And then there were many times he would just leave in a fury and Pia saying she didn't know when he'd return.  And then of course looking at the burned grape vines in his field out back brought up many questions too.  It was just a really good thing to leave there.  Tomorrow I will travel by bus to NOTO to my next farm.  I'm always apprehensive about what the unknown will be like.  I don't know what I will be required to do at this next farm.  All I know is they practice macrobiotics.  The man is Massimo and his wife is Janne and they will meet me at the bus stop in NOTO.